diversions and Bath water

I went to Bath last weekend (Thurs - Sat) and had a very nice time. The Backpacker's where I stayed was right in the middle of town, practically, just around the corner from the Abbey, Pump Room, and Roman Baths. It was certainly not the nicest hostel I've stayed at, but it was very friendly -- I've never been greeted so happily by so many people at any other hostel I've stayed in.

On Thursday night I went to see "Princess Ida," performed by the Bath Gilbert & Sullivan Society. It was a very fun play/opera, but the performance was poor. They didn't take the time to really milk the comedy of so many lines and scenes. Also,

"the dancing was a lamentable mess!" (18 points).

They did it in sort of Tudor-ish period (16th, maybe 17th century), but I thought it would have been a lot of fun as a Regency or even Victorian period. Except that you might have to change some things around a bit (such as, perhaps, changing the kings to Dukes).

Friday morning I went to the Roman Baths, which are outrageously expensive. It's worth it if you're into Roman culture, as there are all kinds of ruins and artifacts in there. But I was mostly excited to get to the Pump Room and "take the waters." The room was very different from what I had expected it to be -- much more elegant. There is now a restaurant in there run by Searcy's, which is a very swanky, posh, expensive restaurant company that owns restaurants in some really high-scale places, including the Royal Opera and the National Portrait Gallery. And, of course, the Pump Room. Anyway, I decided to have breakfast in the Pump Room. Technically, it was elevenses, but I hadn't eaten anything else that morning, so it was doing double duty. The meal I ordered included a glass of Bath spa water, and I drank it with relish, hoping against hope that it would cure my awful cold. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had been led to expect by everyone I talked to in the weeks before my trip. There are 43 minerals in it, including a very high amount of iron, so you can imagine what it tasted like: warm water with an iron-ish flavor. I also got to be there while the Pump Room Trio was there -- a piano trio playing nice (mostly modern) classical music. It was very relaxing, and I completely understand how people could have spent a whole morning in that room.

After that, I mostly wandered around Bath for the day, looking at the beautiful architecture and finding as many as possible of the famous streets and places that are invariably mentioned in any romance novel set in Bath (including Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, the latter of which I used as my journal this trip). Along the way I listened to some talks on my iPod in preparation for my Relief Society lesson this Sunday. I stopped at the Assembly Rooms as well, and that was very nice. In the basement is a museum of costume, but I decided not to go in there. I just hung out upstairs, mostly in the octagon room. Annoyingly, all the rest of it was officially closed in preparation for some concerts for the Bath International Music Festival. They didn't tell me that, though, and so I managed to 'sneak' my way in to the Tea Room as well, but I was discovered there and informed that the room was closed, and that put a stop to any attempt to see the ballroom on the other side of the building.

That night I decided to go on a walking tour called "Bizarre Bath." It was entertaining, which was the point. It wasn't intended to really give you any information about Bath, but it took you around the very centre of town, and he pointed out some silly things to you, told jokes, and did some magic tricks. My favorite part, probably, was something I had also noticed earlier in the day; namely, the fact that, not 20 feet away from the imposing and quite beautiful Bath Abbey, there was a little shabby building labelled as the Seventh-Day Adventist church of Bath.

I got some nice pictures, though most of them look a lot alike: crescents of 3-1/2 - storey Georgian townhouses. In any case, though, I now have photos to prove that I was in Bath, and I can put an image with the places in Persuasion.